The sacrilegious inroads were not without their beneficial result; for
they afforded those who might be disposed to institute reforms an
admirable ground not only for bringing the matter more closely and
immediately under the public observation, but they enlisted in the cause
the foremost ecclesiastics, who might recognize in this internal
disunion a danger of interminable attacks and depredations from without,
if not an eventual loss of political independence; and, accordingly, in
the course of the spring of 697-698, the patriarch of Grado himself
submitted to the arrengo at Heraclia a scheme, which had been devised by
him and his friends, for changing the government. The proposal of the
metropolitan was to divest the tribunes of the sovereignty, and to have
once more a magistrate (_capo dei tribuni_), in whom all power might be
concentrated. His title was to be duke. His office was to be for life.
With him was to rest the whole executive machinery. He was to preside
over the synod as well as the arrengo, either of which it was competent
for him to convoke or dissolve at pleasure; merely spiritual matters of
a minor nature were alone, in future, to be intrusted to the clergy; and
all acts of convocations, the ordination of a priest or deacon, the
election of a patriarch or bishop, were to be subject to the final
sanction of the ducal throne.
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